Now the stage is set for Theodora’s legitimization, first as wife, next as the Emperor’s consort. Back in Constantinople she is introduced to Justinian, the Emperor’s favorite nephew, who likes her so much he changes the law forbidding actresses to marry in order to wed her. This role, begun cynically, later turns sincere, and she agrees to work undercover for the church. Desperate to return to Constantinople, Theodora pretends to be a penitent Christian for the chance of a voyage home. At 17, bored but ambitious, she leaves Constantinople with her lover Hecebolus, the new Governor of the Pentapolis in Africa, but that relationship ends when Hecebolus takes another lover. A quick mind, a bold spirit, innate talent and a merciless teacher render Theodora a star by age 12 when she also starts work as a whore. The book is being for HBO.īritish novelist Duffy ( State of Happiness, 2004) uses modern vocabulary to enliven her historical novel- “bitch,” “slut,” “bloke” and worse pepper the pages as she recounts the lurid life of the bear-keeper’s daughter trained for the stage from age five. The unexpurgated story of Theodora, performer and prostitute in Roman Constantinople, destined to rise above her hardscrabble life to become the Emperor’s wife.
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